Second Chance at Life
by Nature9000
Summary: Ten years after their murder, Ray Preston continues to consume himself with guilt over having been unable to prevent the deaths of his two sons and the separation of his son, Andre. His sons question what happened to their brother and what their mother had done. It seems through the involvement of certain persons, the family's greatest wish may be given, a second chance to live.


Second Chance at Life

Disclaimer: Don't own the Haunted Hathaways, or even Victorious

A/N: This oneshot is a clear play off my story "Journey to Hell" and it will portray the reactions and a scene that isn't shown in Journey. Even if you haven't seen the show, that's okay, if you've read Journey-you will understand this.

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-SURPRISE EVEN A GHOST-

"Cross the big flap over…then through the loop." Ray Preston slipped his tie into a clean Windsor knot, attempting this mundane task as he did each day. As much as he realized he did not need to, it was the only thing that made him feel connected to the life he lost ten years ago.

Behind him were his two sons, Miles and Louie. For nearly ten years they stayed thirteen and nine years old, never growing up, and it seemed they didn't care. Every day it pained him to see his boys in such a state. They didn't even know the reason for their demise, it happened so fast.

The women living in their house now were friendly and supportive, and it amazed him that they never asked why they were there or anything about their lives before death. It was New Orleans, they likely assumed it was due to Hurricane Katrina.

"You're doing it wrong," Miles told Louie, who was attempting to lift a large object with his supernatural powers. When the object dropped, it belted a noise that turned the ectoplasm in Ray's body to ice. Gunshots echoed in his head, causing him to cringe and clench his eyes shut.

The image of his boys sitting at the dining table flashed through his mind. Their heads were laying on the surface with blood pooling beneath them. A woman stood behind them, her shoulders rising and falling with each rapid breath. Her black curls fell before her insane eyes, and her hair brushed against the middle of her back.

_"What are you doing Helene?"_

Ray shook his head and moved his hand up to his forehead, groaning as he recalled the woman turning towards him and aiming the gun at his chest. The last thing he saw before the shot was their youngest son gazing in from the other room.

_"I'm leaving. You and the boys want to stay here and wait for Katrina to hit, then be my guest. I'm taking Andre and we will be moving in with my mother."_

He tried to reason with her, but the horror and grief of seeing his two oldest boys at the table was far too much. Before he could truly recover from his shock, a painful sensation burrowed into his chest, piercing his heart.

"Dad?" He felt someone shaking him, but all he could do was hold his hand at his chest and stare blankly into the mirror before him. "Dad, are you okay?" Ray blinked a couple of times, pushing away the memory and the smell of blood. "You've been standing like that for the last ten minutes." His eyes fell onto his oldest son and his lips curved into a sad smile.

"I'm fine, Miles." Miles's eyebrows moved inwards and his mouth twisted into a frown while his studious eyes remained on his father. "What is today?"

"The 15th. Why?"

"No reason." His shoulders fell as a breath descended from him. How much longer could he pretend nothing ever happened? Even as his wife remained in prison and Andre lived somewhere in California with his grandmother, he still wanted to act like everything was perfectly normal. It had been somewhat of a fortunate thing that the boys never saw their mother kill them, but they were still so young. He was never able to tell them the reason they were dead was because Helene shot them.

How does one do that? Not once did Ray imagine a situation where he'd have to tell a child that their mother was a criminal, much less telling his own children their mother was responsible for their deaths.

The guilt that ate away at him was not for the way they died, but the reason. He'd been far too proud to flee the city when the hurricane was going to hit. He wanted to wait it out and thought his house would survive. Helene wanted to leave and didn't give Andre an option because he'd only been seven at the time. Miles and Louie were adamant in staying with their dad.

It was that determination that killed them.

In his suffering and guilt, when the Angel of Death came to claim their souls, he fought him. Argued that they deserved another chance, but instead of giving them life, he left them on Earth to remain as ghosts.

"Why are we still up here? Are the women awake?"

"Yep!" Louie replied. "Frankie and I just got done replacing Taylor's toothpaste with whipped cream." Ray's eyebrow arched upwards as Miles shook his head at his brother.

"Why do you and Frankie always get into so much trouble?"

"It's fun." Louie put his hand to his stomach, laughing uproariously. After a few minutes, he stopped and gazed at the two. His eyes dulled and drifted to the ground while his shoulders fell. "Plus, she reminds me of my little brother."

"You mean your minion?" Miles joked. Ray frowned as Louie's eyes darted to the side. "I remember when the two of you put maple syrup all over my clothes for the next morning!"

"You have to admit, that was a good one." Louie released a depressed sigh and shut his eyes. Andre had always followed Louie around, so the elder brother would often get the boy involved in a variety of pranks. "I miss him." Miles uncrossed his arms and Ray watched as a stray tear fell from the boy's eyes. "Why did mom leave us and take him with her?"

"Yeah." Miles turned back to Ray and frowned. "All these years, you've never told us what happened." The boys knew their deaths didn't have anything to do with the hurricane, all three watched it go by from the confines of their home. "I know you've never said anything, out of protection or whatever, but…don't you think it's time we knew the truth?"

"Just because we still look like kids, Dad, doesn't mean we think that way forever." It was true. Ray always wanted to see Miles graduating on scholarship from a university like Yale or Harvard, and by now Miles knew enough that he could. Louie would be nineteen, and probably getting in trouble wherever he went, but at least he'd have a chance.

Ray studied his sons for the longest time, and with each passing second he felt his heart sink into a cesspool of pain. The color in his face seemed to fade away and his body fell into a slouch. "How can I look into the eyes of my own children, you two, and say-"

"That mom had something to do with us dying?" Louie's answer shocked him and sent his widening eyes onto the boy. "Andre lives with Grandma, and mom's in jail. Miles and I put two and two together a long time ago, Dad…but you never talk about it. We don't know what happened. I'd like to think she abandoned us, but is abandonment what you go to jail for?"

Ray's body started to tense and he closed his eyes, struggling to hold back his tears. "It can be, but not in this case. Come, let's go downstairs. I'll…tell you then." He moved for the door, and without thinking, grabbed the doorknob and pushed the door open. His sons followed after him and moved down the steps. "Miles, Louie, it's really difficult to talk about the subject. Your mother and I, we fell in love from the minute we met, but…she had some issues. Mentally. Issues she got from her own mother."

"Like what?" Miles swept his hand over the railing, sweeping off a speck of bread crumbs that Frankie left behind while going up to her bedroom last night.

"Personality disorders, I'm not sure if you two would understand. Borderline." He felt a strange sensation in his body, like his heart was becoming heavy. The painful emotions that swept through him threatened to strangle him, and the tears he was fighting were starting to well up in his eyes. "She went insane the day she-the day she left us. I wouldn't leave for the hurricane."

Louie snapped his fingers. "I remember that." His voice lifted in triumph as though he were proud to have recalled such an ancient memory. Ray turned to his youngest and watched him kick an object on the ground out of his path. "I remember mom wanted us to go with her, to leave you here if you were going to stay. Miles and I didn't want to. Andre didn't want to either, but mom didn't give him a choice and he didn't fight her like we did."

The boy lifted his head up and his lip began to pout as his eyebrows swept upwards above his nose. "Is that why she left us? She left us to die?" The boy reached to the back of his head and his features started to tense. "I remember…my head really hurt for a second. When I try to think about what happened that day, I only get a headache."

"Happens to me too," Miles shrugged and looked up at Ray, "I'm not sure if it's pain from remembering, or…something else." Ray swept his fingers across his eyes and stopped upon entering the kitchen. Michelle, Taylor and Frankie were all at the table eating breakfast. A strain hit his chest while Miles gazed out at the women. "We were eating, right. One minute, Louie and I are eating pancakes and cereal, the next…" Miles clenched his eyes and swept his fingers across his brow. "A headache followed by blackness."

"How long has it been since we've actually had food?" Louie shook his head the minute the words left him. He glanced back to Ray and Miles with a slight smile. "Sorry, I thought I felt a little hunger."

The women looked over to them and each girl waved. The mother, Michelle, stood up from the table and walked over to them. "I always want to ask how you slept." She turned her lips into an awkward smile and Ray chuckled. She was the one good thing about this whole situation now, her family had brought so much light into their lives without even trying.

Maybe it was a good thing they hadn't scared this family off when they first moved in. At least with the Hathaway family, it gave them something more to do than mope around.

"On second thought." Michelle tapped her chin and tilted her head to the side. "Do ghosts even sleep? What do you do when we go to bed."

"We 'sleep', in a sense." Ray folded his arms and looked to the refrigerator. He felt a rumble in his stomach, but it was so foreign to him that he disregarded it. "We kind of just fade away into the spiritual realm for a while and recharge."

"So all that spiritual energy you guys have does go away? Ghosts get tired too?"

"Pretty much." As he looked to Taylor and Frankie, his heart stopped. They were sitting across from each other, in the same seats Miles and Louie sat in when they were murdered. Taylor was eating a stack of four pancakes while Frankie had a bowl of Lucky Charms, the same last meals that the boys had, respectively.

The gunshots fired off once more in his head and his mind flashed back to the image of his dead sons. His head began to pound and every bone in his body started to ache. For a second he swore his chest was on fire, and the blaze was spreading across him.

Miles hurried over to Taylor and pulled the chair from the table, causing the girl to raise an eyebrow at him. Louie sat down beside Frankie, studying the bowl of cereal with a strangely hungry gaze.

Michelle rubbed her chin and swept her gaze away from the children. "I need to open up the shop. Care to help out, Ray?"

"Yeah. I was going to tell my boys something, but…we can discuss that later." Michelle looked at him with concern, then lowered her hand.

"Alright then. Let's open shop."

Thirty minutes into opening shop, they had one regular customer come in and order a donut with coffee. He was a police officer dressed in uniform and reading the newspaper. He also had the television onto the local news, which never did interest Ray so much.

He bit into one of the donuts that had broken apart in the oven and swallowed, without thinking about it. His eyes remained fixated on the news that uncharacteristically drew his attention in. He could feel Michelle watching him and saw a streak of confusion in her eyes as though she wanted to say something.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the police officer staring through him while holding his cup from his mouth. The man's skin was slowly turning pale as if he were seeing a ghost. This would be impossible due to the fact that Ray, as well as his kids could only be seen by people who lived in the house, or those they revealed themselves to.

"Hey Ray, wasn't your father supposed to visit again last night?"

"Yeah, but he didn't come by." It was a strange situation, since his father never said he was going to show up and not show up without giving them a reason. "If he did, we couldn't see him for whatever reason. Last night was strange."

"How so?"

Ray scratched at his hair and shrugged. "Well, you asked about how we sleep. Our minds enter the spiritual realm like someone dreams, only we're conscious and can communicate with all the others in the afterlife. Only that didn't happen last night. If we entered that realm, I can't remember."

"Like you don't remember a dream?"

"Yeah." He smiled slightly and shook his head. "It's been so long since I've dreamt about anything." He rubbed the back of his neck, massaging a tense spot.  
"Surprisingly last night was incredibly peaceful. All things considering what's been going through my mind lately."

"Like your ex-wife? I heard you talking to the boys this morning…"

He jerked his head back and raised his eyebrows. "How do you know about that?" Michelle pulled a tray of donuts from the oven and walked over to the counter, setting them down carefully. "I've never told any of you what happened."

"I looked up your name when we moved in, Ray. I was curious. When I read the news article, I didn't say anything out of respect, thinking you wouldn't want to talk about it." He leaned forward on the counter, pressing his palms against the surface and bowing his head. "The way you guys talked this morning, they don't know much. Do they?"

"How can I tell them? They had so many dreams, I was always so proud of them, and because I was too proud to leave when the hurricane struck…"

"It wasn't your fault." His eyes clenched as Michelle's warm gaze gave him a slight amount of comfort. "She's the one that went insane, Ray. She's the one in prison for killing her husband and children. It wasn't your fault, you didn't pull that trigger."

"I may as well have. My kids don't even get to see their brother anymore because of this. It's been ten years, and we don't even know what Andre's up to or how he's been handling everything."

"Couldn't you find him?"

"Haven't been able to bring myself to look. What good would it do? He wouldn't be able to see us."

Louie's shout startled the two, and when they turned around, all of the kids were racing out. Louie was staring at his hands, whimpering fearfully. "Dad, I can't do anything anymore. I tried to lift something again but it wouldn't even move."

"What are you talking about?"

Frankie pointed to Louie, then spoke with a hasty tone. "We were just trying to move Taylor's chair out from under her, but he couldn't even make it budge. Then he tried to change into something and nothing happened." Ray crossed his arms and stared at his son while Frankie continued her tireless rant. "Usually he turns into something embarrassing, but even that didn't happen!"

Ray rubbed his chin and looked towards Miles, who seemed to be just as confused. "Can ghosts lose their power, Dad?" He wanted to say they couldn't, but even this phenomenon was something he'd never seen. "I tried even to do something, but nothing works." Miles pointed to the oven door and pulled his hands back, but the door didn't budge. "See?" The boy glanced at Ray's hands and reached out, taking the man's wrists. "What's all over your fingers, Pop?"

He shifted his eyes to his hands and shrugged. "Icing, I suppose."

At this point the police officer rose from his table, leaving his donut and coffee, and carefully made his way out of the bakery. Ray tilted his head and opened his mouth, but could think of nothing to say. "You were eating?" Taylor asked. "Since when do ghosts eat?"

"They don't."

He turned his attention back to the news bulletin where a picture of Helene was being shone. His body froze and the others turned to the television as the reporter talked.

_"Yesterday morning during Pastor McConahan's visit to the Louisiana State Penitentiary, inmate Helene Preston collapsed during prayer. It is said that the Pastor heard her praying for her family seconds before her collapse and attempted to rouse her. When she awoke, she said only one word before death. Autopsies found no known reason for passing as her heart was in good shape and she had no other ailments that would have contributed to this mysterious and sudden death..."_

"What the-" Ray cleared his throat and turned away, weary of all the strange things that were going on. "I really do need rest." He brushed past Michelle, patting her on the shoulder. After a few steps, he stopped and his eyes enlarged. He turned around and she was holding her shoulder, staring at it with shock.

"I felt that," She shook her head and stared at him, stammering in order to recover. "But that's impossible." The others looked at each other with confusion as silence hung in the air for several minutes, breaking only when Frankie delivered a loud smack to Louie's shoulder.

"Ow!" Louie rubbed his arm and Ray could feel his heart racing, which was yet another shock. Louie glared at Frankie, then looked back to his arm. "We're alive? How?"

"This is freaking me out," Miles replied, "I'd ask if I was dreaming, but…I'm not sure that I am."

"You're not."

Miles slowly walked to the couch and fell back on it with a groan. "Mom died in prison, we're somehow-" His voice caught in his throat as he felt of his arm and closed his eyes. "Dad, I don't think I have an answer for this."

"Me either, Son." He was trying hard to think of something to explain this procedure, but it came with no warning. His concerned gaze turned to Louie, then the women, and his lips twisted into a nervous frown. "For once I don't have any idea what's going on."

What truly scared him was that he'd forgotten what it was to be a living, breathing person. The donut he'd so absentmindedly eaten was now settling in his stomach and filling him with something that he'd not felt in years-sustenance. Though, he would have preferred his first food alive again would be something healthier.

Louie put his hands to his stomach and looked towards his feet. "Dad, I'm really hungry." He could feel the hunger himself, as though the donut hadn't filled him. If they were alive again, then it wouldn't surprise him that hunger was going to be the first thing to feel. "I've been hungry, I just didn't think it was hunger."

Miles had his face in his hands and slowly lifted his head, staring at the wall in front of him. "Same here, I feel like I'm going to be sick if I don't get something in my stomach."

With that, Taylor reached through the bakery window and pulled a bag of Hawaiian Rolls. "Here, have some of these while we get you some actual food." She set the rolls down on the coffee table and they only stared down at the bag.

It was almost foreign to them, and considering the popularity of Hawaiian Rolls to most, a rare treat. Louie was the first to make a move. He opened the bag with swift hands and removed one of the rolls. Miles soon followed, grabbing two and handing one of them to Ray.

"T-Thank you." Ray took the roll and moved it to his mouth, his hand trembled as he carefully parted his lips. As he took a bite, he felt a rush of flavor from the sweet bread flowing into his body. Soothing him. His knees started to buckle and his eyes welled up with tears.

This didn't just happen to people. The sheer force of what was going on was enough to bring him to his knees, causing him to want to weep. The longer he stayed there, the more he became aware of the smells around him and how things felt, such as the warm and soft texture of the rolls or the sweet smell of the donuts in the display window.

Now he could watch his sons grow and accomplish all of their goals and dreams, but it wasn't enough now that there was a second chance. He wanted to see his youngest, to know if Andre was okay. Certainly his brothers would want to know as well. The only problem he could see was not knowing how to even look for him.

Ray sat with his two sons and slowly finished the rolls with them. The remaining rolls were carefully split so that they could share more of the bread. Michelle and her daughters were making something swift, he hoped, so that they would be able to actually have a meal.

Miles pulled his head away from a roll in his hand and looked up to Ray. "Do we deserve this? This life?" Ray's heart nearly broke seeing his sons looking at him with the same question in their eyes. He put his arms around their shoulders and gently nodded.

"There must be a reason, but I think so."

"Do you-you think you could tell us what mom did? What happened to our little brother?"

He closed his eyes and inhaled slowly, struggling to answer. It didn't matter now, did it? Of course it did, the woman was still their mother. "Leaving out the details…" His voice trembled and his chest began to rattle with anxiety. "Your mother shot us." Their eyes widened and the boys slowly reached to the back of their heads, their eyes quivered and Louie began to tear up. He sniffed and quickly tensed to appear as though he could brush this off. Miles became immensely quiet and shook his head. "She went insane. I…blamed myself for so long."

"It wasn't your fault, Dad."

"I know."

Their first meal came to them as a shock at first, but they were becoming used to food again, it was a gradual feeling. No words were spoken other than gratitude while eating the supper prepared for them. After a while it seemed like Michelle had disappeared, though it was just to answer the phone, then she'd gone back into the shop for a while.

When she returned to the house, the guys were lounging around the living room as Taylor and Frankie played some game on the console. Ray turned his attention to Michelle, smiling vaguely as he pushed his thoughts from his mind. There was far too much to think about to concentrate on what anyone was doing, but he was trying to remain on earth.

"Ray, Miles and Louie, there's someone here to see you." His eyebrow arched and the boys responded with confusion. Michelle had a bright smile and high eyebrows, so whoever this visitor was, they must be friendly. "Just flew in and called my shop for directions about twenty minutes ago."

Ray pushed himself up as the girls dropped their game. "Who would be visiting _us?"_ He asked. It made no sense when considering three ghosts that had just regained their life by some means they didn't understand. "Nobody even knows we're alive, right?"

"Just come into the shop." She left through the door leading down to the shop, so the men followed without question.

When they made it down, they saw a teenager sitting on the vanilla couch. He had brown dreads touching to his broad shoulders and was nervously patting his knees. Ray furrowed his brow and squinted his eyes, studying this boy. There was no mistaking who he was, but seeing the boy at this age was more of a shock than anything else.

"A-Andre?" Louie and Miles froze and Ray stumbled forward, trembling as Andre turned his head up and smiled at the three.

"I can't believe it," Andre rose to his feet and exhaled slowly. Ray was overcome with shock and tears at this point, deciding to let his tears drench his cheeks as his son moved forward. "I wouldn't have believed it had I not gone through what I just did with my friends…"

Before any further words could be spoken, Andre threw his arms around Ray and the boys, weeping as well. Miles and Louie hugged their brother close, squeezing as though refusing to let go.

"How are you here? How did you know we were, alive? We don't even know how that happened!" Andre pulled back and wiped a tear from his face.

"It's a long story." The boy took a deep breath and moved his hand through his hair. "You wouldn't believe it, but-"

"We've been ghosts for the last ten years, there's nothing we wouldn't believe at this point." Andre chuckled briefly and bowed his head. He sniffed and moved for the couch.

"I have trouble believing it myself. My friends and I literally went through hell trying to fight that angel of death guy." Ray's heart stopped as the image of Samil flashed before his mind. "We were trying to save my friend's sister. We did." Andre waved his hand in the air and leaned back with a heavy sigh.

"There's more to it?" Ray sat beside him and the boys moved around to the other side of the couch, studying Andre. It was hard to take in that the youngest sibling was now the eldest, but that wasn't their primary concern now that he brought up Samil.

"Yeah, my friend's father got our families together to make a deal with God and, well, the devil. Some of them sacrificed their own lives so that we could come back unharmed. While they were doing this, I guess mom was praying or something and so her soul was transported to the group…"

Miles and Louie glanced at each other with wide gazes and Ray leaned back slowly, recalling the news broadcast of Helene's death. He pressed his lips together and furrowed his brow. "Helene died during a prison sermon, I think."

"Yeah. She was praying for forgiveness or for you guys to live, and I guess it was just at the right time. Because everyone else was making deals involving us, and her prayer involved me, she was lumped in…she sacrificed herself…A guilty mind, I guess."

It took him a minute to process this. As he looked to the younger boys, he could see the shock growing on their faces. It was a miracle, or a blessing, whatever it was. Andre moved his hand over his mouth and closed his eyes, his body began to shake and his head moved from side to side. "To this day, I can't get out the image of what mom did to you guys. I had so much anger, for so many years. I blamed her, hated her, hated my grandmother." Ray turned his head down and closed his hands. After a second, he lifted his hand up and gently rubbed Andre's back.

"I understand, son."

"I could never imagine mom giving her life up like that. I was…so young when it happened-just seeing you now is almost surreal." He cleared his throat and turned his head, smiling at his brothers and laughing once to cover a single sob. "I guess I'm the oldest now, huh?"

Louie gazed up at him with admiration and Miles nodded once. "You don't have to go back to California, do you?" Miles put his hand to Andre's wrist and looked into his brother with pleading eyes. Andre brushed his nose with his finger and shrugged.

"I might have to gather my things, but I want to stay here. I want to be here with you guys. It'll take some getting used to, but…I'd like to, I don't have anywhere else to go anyway. Grandma's-" He halted for a minute and took in a sharp breath. "When she learned where we went, her heart gave out. She's gone too…"

Louie frowned and tilted his head to the right. Neither Miles or Louie had any real memories of the woman. All things considered, Helene's mother never left California. Even Ray didn't remember much of the woman. "What was Grandma like?" Andre pulled his head back and whisked his hand from his chin with a chuckle.

"Almost as crazy as mom. Paranoid and afraid of her own shadow." The boys shuddered.

"Well we'd love to have you," Ray said in an attempt to change the subject. His son smiled back at him and looked into his eyes. Ray looked towards Michelle and the girls and exhaled. "Arrangements are going to have to be made, I guess. There should be enough rooms in the house, though some of us are going to have to share rooms, probably." He returned his attention to his sons. "But if you're up to it, we really would like to be a part of your life."

There was no reason to waste the second chance given to them. He felt mixed emotions towards Helene's apparent sacrifice, but since it had brought all of them back together again, he couldn't truly feel any sort of loathing for her now.

"I would love to, Dad."

"Great. We're just getting used to this new life, so you'll have to bear with us for a while." Andre laughed once and Ray's lips curved into a gentle smile. "It's good to be a family again. I hope you'll tell us how you've done growing up?"

"Oh, it's been interesting. I'm a musician like you, dad." Andre stretched his arms out and flexed his fingers. "You should hear me on the piano!" Ray's heart swelled with pride and he quickly looked to Michelle, who poked her thumb over her shoulder.

"There is a piano in the living room," she remarked, "If you have the time we'd love to hear you play."

Andre clapped his hands and a grin spread across his face. "I've got all the time in the world now, it seems."

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Hope you enjoyed the oneshot. I just really wanted to write out their reaction, and for various reasons this couldn't fit in Journey. Let me know your thoughts


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